Polishing yellowed signal lights
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:20 am
I had severely yellowed signal lights on my L400. I thought I would have to buy new ones to replace them as they looked pretty terrible next to my new factory headlights.
In speaking with Glen from CC auto he recommended Meguiar's headlight restoration kit. I looked it up on the net, and after careful searching finally found some in the Wal Mart in Penticton. (I could not find it anywhere else I looked in the last 2 weeks!)
Before I tried Meguiar's, I tried a trick I saw on youtube. Toothpaste and a cloth, and lots of elbow grease to remove a layer of the yellowed plastic. I can say this. It works, however, I prefer Meguiar's for the $20 it costs as I don't have that much elbow grease left in my elbows....
Meguiar's comes with a drill buffing pad, and that makes all the difference in the world:
Before And, after Polishing (with masking tape still on bodywork to prevent the paint from being polished off):
Unfortunately the sun moved while I was taking photos, so the after photo is more brightly lit. Sorry about that.
You can actually see into the lens now from a distance, and it looks much clearer, so there will be no need to replace my signals. However, there is still a yellow tint to the plastic, but this comes from inside the lens where I can't polish the yellow out. It is not as severe as the yellowing was on the exterior however.
In speaking with Glen from CC auto he recommended Meguiar's headlight restoration kit. I looked it up on the net, and after careful searching finally found some in the Wal Mart in Penticton. (I could not find it anywhere else I looked in the last 2 weeks!)
Before I tried Meguiar's, I tried a trick I saw on youtube. Toothpaste and a cloth, and lots of elbow grease to remove a layer of the yellowed plastic. I can say this. It works, however, I prefer Meguiar's for the $20 it costs as I don't have that much elbow grease left in my elbows....
Meguiar's comes with a drill buffing pad, and that makes all the difference in the world:
Before And, after Polishing (with masking tape still on bodywork to prevent the paint from being polished off):
Unfortunately the sun moved while I was taking photos, so the after photo is more brightly lit. Sorry about that.
You can actually see into the lens now from a distance, and it looks much clearer, so there will be no need to replace my signals. However, there is still a yellow tint to the plastic, but this comes from inside the lens where I can't polish the yellow out. It is not as severe as the yellowing was on the exterior however.